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Stakeholder Engagement

CERES ROADMAP VISION

Companies will regularly engage in robust dialogue with stakeholders across the whole value chain, and will integrate stakeholder feedback into strategic planning and operational decision-making.

Check out the Roadmap in Action section for examples of how companies are implementing the Stakeholder Engagement expectations of the Ceres Roadmap.

Robust stakeholder engagement — with employees, NGOs, local communities and investors— is invaluable for identifying key risks and opportunities on pressing sustainability challenges. Stakeholders include people or groups within or outside the company who are affected by the company’s activities.

HOW ARE COMPANIES PERFORMING?

In The Road to 2020: Corporate Progress on The Ceres Roadmap For Sustainability, we evaluated 600 of the largest U.S. companies on their progress towards meeting the expectations laid forth in The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability. Using data compiled and analyzed by Sustainalytics, this section looks at how companies are performing on key areas of stakeholder engagement such as: focused engagement activity, substantive stakeholder dialogue and investor engagement. These criteria for stakeholder engagement are sophisticated and require a leadership commitment to meet the expectations set in The Ceres Roadmap.

This assessment found that almost 24 percent of companies (144 companies) are demonstrating some degree of meaningful stakeholder engagement, whereas nearly half of the companies assessed do not disclose their engagements.

Leaders in this arena conduct frequent, substantive and diverse engagements with an array of key stakeholders, including investors. They seek feedback and take criticisms seriously, disclosing this dialogue in a transparent way that encourages ongoing engagement and evaluation. The 41 companies —seven percent—included in Tiers 1 and 2 for overall Stakeholder Engagement efforts are also assimilating this extensive feedback into strategic planning, business decisions, reporting frameworks and formal goal setting.

Interactive Data

Click on a performance tier below to view more information about how companies are performing on stakeholder engagement. To view data on other stakeholder engagement expectations, click the links to the left.